Dead Man Walking

The University of Memphis announced the forced resignation of head coach
Larry Finch amidst an uncontrollable media frenzy.

by Dennis Freeland

Lead
me to the gas chamber."

Larry Finch was being funny. It was more than an
hour after he had won his 215th game at the U of M. Heading for a press
room in the bowels of The Pyramid where a bevy of TV cameras anxiously waited
for him to announce his resignation, Finch joked with the three burly security
guards assigned to protect him on this night when he could not be protected,
the night which would disconnect Finch from the only job he ever wanted.

"Lead me to the gas chamber."

No one laughed. The two or three dozen people surrounding
Finch friends, family, reporters, and university officials had just witnessed
the almost surreal spectacle of U of M athletic director R.C. Johnson, school
president Lane Rawlins, Finch's attorney Ted Hansom, and school attorney
Doris Kirby signing an agreement in which the Tiger coach agreed to ride
off quietly into the sunset for a sum of slightly less than half a million
dollars. The deal was finalized on the counter of an empty concession stand
just off the east entrance to the arena floor. It seemed fitting that Finch's
career would conclude inside an empty Pyramid those 20,142 seats in this
shiny downtown arena contributed greatly to Finch's demise.

Finch had first been offered a buyout on December
18th, the day of the Northeast Louisiana game. Finch steadfastly denies
that he was approached last summer, as some have reported. "This summer
there was not any buyout discussions with me," Finch said Monday on
his WREC-AM 600 radio show. "Whether they may have had a situation
where they were trying to raise money, I have no idea. But not with me."

His initial reaction to the December 18th proposal
was negative, but less than a week later, in a meeting on December 23rd,
attended by Rawlins, Johnson, Finch, and his friend and advisor Rev. Bill
Atkins, the head coach agreed in principal to allow the school to buy out
the remaining three years of his contract.

It is at this point that Atkins, minister of Greater
Imani Church in Midtown, a former talk-radio host, and one of the moving
forces behind the Finch support group called the Finch Bench, says the university
betrayed its basketball coach.

"After that [December 23rd] meeting, the university
was supposed to be working on the financial arrangements," Atkins says.
"They drug their feet and didn't do it and then wanted him to announce
his resignation without the terms of the buyout completed."

When the university asked Finch to announce his
resignation before the contract buyout was finalized, Atkins decided it
was time to go to the press with the story. He says he did so with Finch's
approval. Once Atkins began telling reporters what had transpired, the story
became front-page news in the daily paper and was the lead story on every
local newscast. It was a media circus the university could hardly afford,
particularly with the key player being local hero and U of M graduate Finch.
The potential for racial discord hovering above the fray also moved the
school into frenetic action.

Thursday was the last home basketball game for
more than a week. School officials didn't want to see this media show following
the team on the road, and thus resolved to settle the Finch controversy
before the bus taking the team to Arkansas for a weekend game in Fayetteville
pulled out of The Pyramid parking lot.

The drama intensified early Thursday night. Finch
wept during the player introductions and was himself received warmly by
a crowd which seemed aware that history was just around the corner. During
the second half, with the Tigers firmly in control on the court, reporters
began looking for cues. Would the announcement be made tonight? Yes. The
media room in The Pyramid was being prepared for a large press conference.
The TV cameras were already in place.

But after the game, Finch stuck to routine. He
met with reporters in the usual fashion, telling them he would only discuss
the game just played and the upcoming contest in Arkansas. Other topics
were forbidden.

Next, Finch did his post-game radio show on KIX
106 with Paul Hartlage and Hank McDowell. A larger-than-usual group of fans
stayed to listen. Among Finch's strongest supporters, many complained openly
about how the coach was being treated. Some swore they would never again
support University of Memphis basketball.

One longtime supporter and close personal friend
of Finch was asked by a little girl, no more than 4 or 5, to explain the
banners hanging high above the arena floor. The banners represent conference
championships and NCAA appearances. Larry Finch, either as a player, assistant,
or head coach, had a hand in hoisting most of them.

The Finch supporters were not spending all their
anger on the school. Media types were singled out for criticism, especially
the high-profile TV reporters. Channel 5's Harold Graeter was accosted by
one woman who told him that Finch's problems were the result of negative
media coverage.

During his radio show, Finch appeared to change
his mind about the buyout. "I've never quit anything in my life,"
he told Hartlage and McDowell. "And I'm not going to start now."

The fans cheered loudly.

After finishing the radio show, Finch confounded
reporters and university officials by heading not toward the press conference
but to a small room across the hall from the Tiger locker room. There, for
the next half hour, a stream of people came and went. First friends and
family. Then Finch's attorney, Hansom. Then the university attorney. Then
other university officials. Finally Finch emerged and started toward the
press conference. But he was stopped by Hansom and the two returned to the
small room where the procession of visitors began all over again.

Finally the last details were worked out and an
obviously tired coach again started the long walk to his destiny. The procession
moved from one hallway into the concession area just off the arena floor,
then stopped while various parties signed off on the agreement ending Finch's
11-year reign as king of Memphis basketball.

"LARRY, THROUGH FRUSTRATION and great pain,
agreed to what they gave him, but it was far below what the university should
have done," says Atkins, who accuses the media of exaggerating the
amount Finch had asked for. According to Atkins, Finch wanted his base salary
plus the money he would have made from TV and radio over the final three
years. That amount would have come to about $690,000. The school will not
pay any TV or radio money after this season. "I thought it was despicable
for the university to send Larry Finch off with $411,000," Atkins continues.
"It's just bad."

While Rawlins made his dramatic announcement (which
was seen live on most local TV stations' 10 p.m. newscasts), Finch battled
tears. His wife, Vicki, sat close by with her right arm firmly around his
lower back. Finch thanked Rawlins for his complimentary remarks and promised
a statement later.

"Larry was not prepared for that press conference
after the Southern Miss game," Atkins maintains. "He went anyway,
just to keep the peace."

Johnson spoke last and, reading from a prepared
text, followed his brief comments about Finch with an outline of how he
would hire a replacement coach. This seeming insensitivity outraged Finch
supporters.

The
A.D. later defended his comments and the timing of the school's buyout.
"This is in reality almost a divorce, and divorces aren't very pleasant,"
Johnson said this week. "I don't think there is ever a good time, and
beyond that I don't want to talk anymore about it. We certainly didn't want
to hurt anybody's feelings. There is no good time to do this sort of thing."

WHEN A 35-YEAR-OLD LARRY FINCH was named head basketball
coach in 1986, the sum of his head coaching experience was two years one
at Richland Junior High and one at Messick High. He had recruited for and
learned from two successful head coaches, Gene Bartow, the former Memphis
coach who with Finch's help built a successful program from scratch at UAB,
and Dana Kirk, who had taken a team composed of local players recruited
by Finch to the Final Four only a year before a series of scandals forced
Kirk's resignation.

No one could have guessed how much college basketball
would change on and off the court in the next 11 years. Consider the adjustments
Finch had to make based on these unforeseen factors:

Rule changes in college basketball. Finch had to adjust his coaching philosophy to accommodate
a shot clock and the three-point shot, the two most important changes in
the college game during the modern era. Both came into play shortly after
Finch took over as head coach.

Sweeping changes in academic requirements. For years the University of Memphis had thrived on local
ball players whose academic credentials were not as polished as their basketball
skills. Proposition 48 changed all that. Suddenly the NCAA was requiring
minimum test scores and high school grades. Players who previously may
have started as freshmen had to sit out a year, or go to junior college,
or forgo college altogether.

The opening of The Pyramid in 1991. Few people said it at the time, but moving from the comforts
of a sold-out coliseum with an entrenched waiting list for season tickets
into a vast downtown arena was a big risk for U of M basketball. After
the newness of the facility wore off, Finch was expected to do something
no Memphis basketball coach had ever been asked to do: sell tickets. When
Rawlins fired football coach Chuck Stobart following the 1994 season, the
president attributed the decision in part to lagging attendance. That much-repeated
quote would be used against Finch regularly in the next three years. After
the press conference last Thursday, Rawlins said he wished he had never
made the comment.

The much-maligned season-ticket surcharge. When the university moved into The Pyramid it initiated
a policy requiring season-ticket holders to make a donation to one of the
school's financial support organizations. A common practice at many top
basketball schools, it was not accepted warmly in Memphis.
"I didn't institute the surcharge. I wasn't the one who put the price
on the ticket, but I'm the one blamed for it because I'm the only one people
could see," Finch said on his radio show this week. "I understand
that. I said, `Well, since I'm part of the athletic department, I'll take
the blame for it.'"

The proliferation of college players turning
pro early. Here is a list of players who
left school early under Finch: Vincent Askew, Sylvester Gray, Marvin Alexander,
Anfernee Hardaway, David Vaughn, and, last spring, Lorenzen Wright. This
is a trend that has hurt many college programs, but was especially cruel
to Finch. For instance, had Wright stayed in school just one more season,
the Tigers, with the addition of Sunday Adebayo, would have been a ranked
team and the school would have found it difficult to force Finch's resignation.

THE COACH HAS CALLED A PRESS conference at Greater
Imani church for Thursday morning. Finch's public response may determine
whether the program enjoys a smooth transition.

Finch is proud of his reputation as a Memphian
who has contributed to racial harmony in Memphis. "When they started
the Finch Bench, I said I didn't want there to be any racial barriers,"
he said on his radio show. "You've got people from all walks of life
involved in the Finch Bench. But when you say, `Finch Bench,' people say,
`Oh, Lord, here we go with this white-black stuff.' But that wasn't the
case. I've been one to stand up and say we don't want to have this sort
of stuff."

Later he reiterated the affection he feels for
the school where he played and coached. "I love my school. My children
go out there," he said. "We've got a lot of people who work on
campus out there whose children went other places to school, but my children
walk the same halls I walked."

Atkins also thinks his friend will take the high
road. "Larry is not going to do or say anything to hurt that university.
Larry Finch is one of the kindest, dedicated, committed persons you will
ever meet. I am just bewildered by the hate, the negativity, the nasty things
that have been said about him. You can fuss with his coaching his wife
argues with his coaching sometimes. But aside from that, what has happened
to him has been totally unfair."

And the coach's friend has a prediction to make:
"He will coach again. At a major university level," Atkins says
confidently. "He's coming back to The Pyramid. I guarantee you."

But next time it will be with a different team,
sitting on a different bench.